Intro to Faux Plants and flowers

When it comes to plants you are either have a green thumb or don’t so if you don’t what are your options? Well I’m here to tell you that you can have plants in your home that would trick even the well trained eye. I want you to understand that high quality faux plants or artificial flowers are not cheep. They often cost the same as the real thing, or in some instances are twice the amount. Considering that they will last a lifetime if stored and cared for properly I consider a worthwhile investment. Rooms that are decorated with some organic accents look much better than one that is stark and sterile.

Even the worst plant killer can usually grown some real plants and this helps to make a display that contains some fake look all the more believable. Below you can see were I have utilized some succulents in a window full of mostly real plants. Succulents while drought tolerant are not tolerant of poor light. They will quickly get leggy, pale and develop soft spots if grown in poor light. Since succulents are also a premium item having them die and deteriorate is discouraging and costly. also since succulents have a matt to glossy waxy surface and succulent leaves in real life they lend well to faux imitations.

 

Location Location Location

High quality artificials need to be placed in a believable setting. If you have a bunch of artificial plants sitting in the center of a room that always has the shades pulled its a dead give away that they are not real. Place your faux plants were they would actually potentially grow and thrive if they were real. Below I show a mix of fake and real plants on my office desk which is located in the basement of my home. What makes it believable is that i have a artificial light source for the few real plants. The fake plants are grouped around the light source as if they were there to get the light as well.

Faux plants don’t ever need to  be watered which helps if your using delicate furniture that you don’t want moisture coming in contact with. They don’t drop leaves or get bugs. Really the only downside to faux plants is that they do need to be dusted occasionally. They can fade if they are located in a setting with high light. One way to avoid this is use real plants that utilize most of the direct light. This keeps only the dappled light reaching your faux plants as seen below.

Who doesn’t like flowers on their real plants? Well of course everyone, but the fact of the matter is most plants do not continuously bloom non-stop. The relative low light in most peoples homes as well as the fact that most plants marketed for home use are low light. This leads to  infrequent blooming and adds to the disappointment. This is were faux plants come to the rescue providing cheerful blooms when your real plants are resting. below I have inserted a couple stems of faux real touch phalaenopsis orchids into a real plant that is currently resting. again placement and articulation of the flowers is critical to making it look natural. look up reference pictures if you don’t know how the flowers should be positioned.

Avoiding filling a space with only blooming plants as this looks pretty unnatural. The most believable set up is when you mix some foliage faux with flowering faux plants. as seen on my booster table in the kitchen.

This photo below is all faux plants and it mixes flowering and texturally interesting succulents to make a nice display.

Again using some artificial light source i have placed real plants around this faux peony bouquet and it helps accent the creamy petals as well as make it look more realistic.

Lastly this faux brassica orchids height works well in the corner of a semi lit corner.

I hope this article helped you see that faux plants can look real natural and downright gorgeous when used properly. Go and cheer up your space with some greenery even if you can’t grow the real thing.

Where to get awesome looking faux?

some great places to get realistic plants are http://Pottarybarn.com, http://Pier1.com, http://hobbylobby.com, and http://Michaels.com. I prefer to purchase in store to ensure that I’m getting what I want. Lots of times the way the faux plants are depicted online are not what they look in real life. I tend to avoid the ones that are poorly painted, or have to many obvious mold seems that are pretty obvious.